So, i did a little research on the claims made in this opinion. Here are a few things that are not mentioned, Yargo Elementary School is at max 1.5 miles driving distance away from Nicole McIntyre house. The speed limit on the main "road" she mentions is a 30 MPH side road, yes there is no "sidewalk" but if you look both sides of the road, there is at least 15-20ft on each side of flat ground with grass the entire way. In addition, did she bother to ask if she could just drop off her kids early? Are her kids so fat that they cant bare the 30-45 min walk to the school every day?
As always, here are my sources:
Her white page listing
Directions from school to her home, see streetview for the speed limits, etc

MadHatter500: I wonder how often her husband decided to vote against tax increases. 'Cause gubmint never does anything worth while. It's all theft.

Nah. The State cut their funding about 20 percent to fund pork projects. Even if Mom and Dad are together, they both have 90 minute commutes to their jobs, so by default these will be latchkey children.

TWX: AverageAmericanGuy: If you consider school a holding cell for criminals until they reach adulthood and can be shuffled off to prisons, then something as forward thinking as shortening the school year is anathema.

But school is about learning. It's about interacting with others and expanding horizons. Time spent in school where this isn't happening is time wasted. Kids shouldn't be kept in school because it's convenient for their parents. They should be allowed to explore the world on their own once the limits of school learning has been reached.

I think that school should be year-round. 230 days a year approximately, two weeks off between semesters in winter and summer, and one week off between the quarters in the spring and fall. Minimal time to forget their studies, especially for those households that don't reinforce studies for the two and a half months they're off for in the summer. We don't make kids help with the harvest, why do we have a school system based on an agrarian timetable?

I also think that uniforms should be ubiquitous since parents don't seem to know how to dress their children anymore. Skip kindergarten, but have them first through 12th.

Your school sounds terrible.

How about like this: Six-Eight weeks on, two weeks off. Same amount of time off as we have now, except a whole lot less knowledge leak. Plenty of time for vacations (plus mom and dad can have some flexibility - if they have busy work periods during the summer, they can just schedule the family trip during the October break) Plus, for the most part, breaks line up with major holidays. Breaks happen around Presidents Day, Easter/Passover, 4th of July, the start of September (Moving Up break), Columbus Day, and the last one is broken up - one week during Thanksgiving, one week during the last week of the year (for Christmas/New Years).

Hell, to keep continuity we can even continue to have the graduation in May/June and the new year - when new students enter and existing students move up - in September.

Another option here is, in place where summer is very hot and air conditioning is not common in schools, there can be a shortened instructional day - the continued learning helps prevent that knowledge link, and gives lots of students things to do, while the rest can be spent doing something more enjoyable (because seriously, most of school work now-a-days is busy work). Wouldn't it be nice to give kids two hours of free gym, rather then 30 minutes of kickball?

Another benefit is to move around high stakes testing. If were gonna force it on students, how about not putting it all in the hottest part of the year, just before 3 months off?

My mother's school, which is a residential school for SED children, has worked like this for over 30 years, and it always struck me as 100% more reasonable. Then the "two weeks off a year!" people or the current, farm-based system.

icemanwol: So, i did a little research on the claims made in this opinion. Here are a few things that are not mentioned, Yargo Elementary School is at max 1.5 miles driving distance away from Nicole McIntyre house. The speed limit on the main "road" she mentions is a 30 MPH side road, yes there is no "sidewalk" but if you look both sides of the road, there is at least 15-20ft on each side of flat ground with grass the entire way. In addition, did she bother to ask if she could just drop off her kids early? Are her kids so fat that they cant bare the 30-45 min walk to the school every day?

30-45 minutes of walking both ways is excessive. And your asking the kid to walk on what I'd assume is private property.

signaljammer: The window-rattlers he installed at the elementary down the street kinda make him seem like a paper-hanger, though.

Is that some kind of Chicago code-speak?

What will this woman do when her kids are out during the Summer? Sounds like mass suicide is her only option.

That book that you hillbillies are so enamored with actually put it better than any of us can:

"for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." - Galatians 6:7

saintstryfe: icemanwol: So, i did a little research on the claims made in this opinion. Here are a few things that are not mentioned, Yargo Elementary School is at max 1.5 miles driving distance away from Nicole McIntyre house. The speed limit on the main "road" she mentions is a 30 MPH side road, yes there is no "sidewalk" but if you look both sides of the road, there is at least 15-20ft on each side of flat ground with grass the entire way. In addition, did she bother to ask if she could just drop off her kids early? Are her kids so fat that they cant bare the 30-45 min walk to the school every day?

30-45 minutes of walking both ways is excessive. And your asking the kid to walk on what I'd assume is private property.

lolWhut!?! I walked to school and back everyday, at least an hour to and the same back, and half the fun was funding shortcuts that were usually located on *GASP* private property.

actionsaurus: lolWhut!?! I walked to school and back everyday, at least an hour to and the same back, and half the fun was funding shortcuts that were usually located on *GASP* private property.

... and that was a bad thing.

saintstryfe: icemanwol: So, i did a little research on the claims made in this opinion. Here are a few things that are not mentioned, Yargo Elementary School is at max 1.5 miles driving distance away from Nicole McIntyre house. The speed limit on the main "road" she mentions is a 30 MPH side road, yes there is no "sidewalk" but if you look both sides of the road, there is at least 15-20ft on each side of flat ground with grass the entire way. In addition, did she bother to ask if she could just drop off her kids early? Are her kids so fat that they cant bare the 30-45 min walk to the school every day?

30-45 minutes of walking both ways is excessive. And your asking the kid to walk on what I'd assume is private property.

It's not private property. I looked at the path on Google Earth. There's a minimum 15-foot (mostly 20+ foot) shoulder the entire length, in places where there's no sidewalk.

While I think she is absolutely nuts, how much would you bet that some overzealous passerby calls the police on her kids walking home OMG BYTHEMSELVES!

italie: Good. That's 20 more days of pole practice for those sweet Georgia peaches. Comes in handy right after graduation...


///Georgia has the hottest women on the planet, packing sub-par IQs. It's wonderful.

I used to think that men who like stupid women were insane. Now I've come to realize that they're either misogynists, insecure, or both.

20 less days? That's like half the school year!

saintstryfe: actionsaurus: lolWhut!?! I walked to school and back everyday, at least an hour to and the same back, and half the fun was funding shortcuts that were usually located on *GASP* private property.

... and that was a bad thing.

Nah. Half of the time it was through housing lots that were under development or places which at the time we didn't know if someone owned it or not. It was never over fences or through peoples yards. We kids still had a little bit of respect in the 90's.

saintstryfe: icemanwol: So, i did a little research on the claims made in this opinion. Here are a few things that are not mentioned, Yargo Elementary School is at max 1.5 miles driving distance away from Nicole McIntyre house. The speed limit on the main "road" she mentions is a 30 MPH side road, yes there is no "sidewalk" but if you look both sides of the road, there is at least 15-20ft on each side of flat ground with grass the entire way. In addition, did she bother to ask if she could just drop off her kids early? Are her kids so fat that they cant bare the 30-45 min walk to the school every day?

30-45 minutes of walking both ways is excessive. And your asking the kid to walk on what I'd assume is private property.

Oh it is not. You sound fat.

jjorsett: saintstryfe: icemanwol: So, i did a little research on the claims made in this opinion. Here are a few things that are not mentioned, Yargo Elementary School is at max 1.5 miles driving distance away from Nicole McIntyre house. The speed limit on the main "road" she mentions is a 30 MPH side road, yes there is no "sidewalk" but if you look both sides of the road, there is at least 15-20ft on each side of flat ground with grass the entire way. In addition, did she bother to ask if she could just drop off her kids early? Are her kids so fat that they cant bare the 30-45 min walk to the school every day?

30-45 minutes of walking both ways is excessive. And your asking the kid to walk on what I'd assume is private property.

It's not private property. I looked at the path on Google Earth. There's a minimum 15-foot (mostly 20+ foot) shoulder the entire length, in places where there's no sidewalk.

I came here to ask the questions that are answered above, so thanks for that.

It was inconceiveable to me that a roadway which was not a small cul-de-sac would lack a sidewalk (or footpath as they're called where I live). Walking on grass, even if it is private property, is perfectly acceptable. The mile-and-half distance might actually help the kids' health and fitness. It will also occupy them for about 60 minutes each day reducing the need for her neighbours to help mind the kids. The woman can't spot a helpful decision when it's forced on her. Idiot.

TWX: AverageAmericanGuy: If you consider school a holding cell for criminals until they reach adulthood and can be shuffled off to prisons, then something as forward thinking as shortening the school year is anathema.

But school is about learning. It's about interacting with others and expanding horizons. Time spent in school where this isn't happening is time wasted. Kids shouldn't be kept in school because it's convenient for their parents. They should be allowed to explore the world on their own once the limits of school learning has been reached.

I think that school should be year-round. 230 days a year approximately, two weeks off between semesters in winter and summer, and one week off between the quarters in the spring and fall. Minimal time to forget their studies, especially for those households that don't reinforce studies for the two and a half months they're off for in the summer. We don't make kids help with the harvest, why do we have a school system based on an agrarian timetable?

I also think that uniforms should be ubiquitous since parents don't seem to know how to dress their children anymore. Skip kindergarten, but have them first through 12th.

You obviously don't live in Iowa. Lots of kids help with farm work and the longer break in the summer gives nonfarming kids chances to get summer jobs.

italie: ///My wife is 10x smarter than all the other woman I've ever dated combined.

Wife-like typing detected.

flamingboard: TWX: AverageAmericanGuy: If you consider school a holding cell for criminals until they reach adulthood and can be shuffled off to prisons, then something as forward thinking as shortening the school year is anathema.

But school is about learning. It's about interacting with others and expanding horizons. Time spent in school where this isn't happening is time wasted. Kids shouldn't be kept in school because it's convenient for their parents. They should be allowed to explore the world on their own once the limits of school learning has been reached.

I think that school should be year-round. 230 days a year approximately, two weeks off between semesters in winter and summer, and one week off between the quarters in the spring and fall. Minimal time to forget their studies, especially for those households that don't reinforce studies for the two and a half months they're off for in the summer. We don't make kids help with the harvest, why do we have a school system based on an agrarian timetable?

I also think that uniforms should be ubiquitous since parents don't seem to know how to dress their children anymore. Skip kindergarten, but have them first through 12th.

You obviously don't live in Iowa. Lots of kids help with farm work and the longer break in the summer gives nonfarming kids chances to get summer jobs.

Yes, what's done in flyover country should be done in civilization, too.

Funny, but growing up in TN I learned how to walk without requiring a sidewalk. It's not that hard. Live in GA now, and the grass does not seem any more difficult to walk on that in my youth.

Oh wait... it's about the mom. I get it now.... *sigh*

yum, the smell of my fanger after inserting a glycerin suppository in my rectum.
and the relief afterward--but not as pleasurable as being in Georgia.
on my mind all the time.

Pocket Ninja: Subby, in a state as notoriously well-educated as Georgia, children do not need to be "in school" to "learn." Children in Georgia learn from the mere act of walking down a country byway, or feeling the soft tickle of the grass on their bare feet. They learn from the splash of a speckled trout in a glittering pond nestled high in a mountain hollow, or in the soft crackle of a possum nosing its way over fall leaves. From the rustling whisper of God's breath over the treetops in the earliest moments of an approaching storm.They learn from life, subby. They learn from living. Learning sticks to them like Georgia clay. It oozes from their pores like moonshine from a drunk. Truly, it's one of the great tragedies in our "modern existence" that "learning" has in some people's minds become no more than some perfect storm of "facts" and "science" and "textbooks." These things are merely tools, subby. They are merely tools, and ironically it takes someone with true learning, Georgia learning, to understand that.

...and ah kin hear the Andy Griffith theme playin' there in ma haid...

saintstryfe: icemanwol: So, i did a little research on the claims made in this opinion. Here are a few things that are not mentioned, Yargo Elementary School is at max 1.5 miles driving distance away from Nicole McIntyre house. The speed limit on the main "road" she mentions is a 30 MPH side road, yes there is no "sidewalk" but if you look both sides of the road, there is at least 15-20ft on each side of flat ground with grass the entire way. In addition, did she bother to ask if she could just drop off her kids early? Are her kids so fat that they cant bare the 30-45 min walk to the school every day?

30-45 minutes of walking both ways is excessive. And your asking the kid to walk on what I'd assume is private property.

'Excessive' is in the eye of the beholder. When I was a kid, a half hour walk was nothing. Kids have a lot more energy than adults do. And no, it's probably not private property. it's probably county property. Roads don't legally stop at the edge of the pavement, but well beyond it. It's a rare road that doesn't legally extend at least a sidewalk's width past the pavement and curb. Where I last lived in Providence, the City came and smashed a hole in the sidewalk in front of our house to get at some valve underneath. Were they trespassing? No, the City owned everything up to about six inches from the building.

well cmon, how much schoolin' do you actually need to 1) cook meth, 2)join the army, or 3)work fast food?

The assumption here being that this "single mother" who bought or rents a house on a busy street, within walking distance to a school, has all her facts right. First, property taxes pay for schools. Property values in Georgia have been hit hard, so the taxes collected have also been hit hard. This is causing the school systems in metro Atlanta to make hard decisions as to what has to be cut to make the school system solvent. Not to justify the choices made by Barrow county (if they are in fact true) but cutting bus routes that are within 1/2 mile of the school and cutting hours are both logical choices. The fact that she does not have a plan for her children's care becuase the "nanny state" is not going to step in and be overseeing them anymore, is not the concern of the government. That is a decision that SHE is going to have to make. She needs to quit whining about what she is being "deprived" of and start taking care of her own. Quit depending on everyone else in this country to come to your rescue and start handling the bumps in the road yourself.
And on a personal note, I was born and raised in metro Atlanta and attended public school in Dekalb County. I feel the school systems here,if not the worst, has to be in the top five of the most corrupt and dysfunctional systems in the country. So ....good luck

Have to be>
I'll own this one, and I won't blame the public schools for my inebriated misspelling in this rant.

Hallelujah Goat: Thinking back, I don't remember ever getting past the Vietnam War in American History by the end of the school year. Now, they may not even make it to The Cold War.

Whoa, you made it to the Vietnam War? I was schooled in Georgia and the end of WWII was as far as we ever got.

A strong commitment to "edyoomacashun". That's what I like about the South.

Rural Georgia: protip #2 is to eat your seed corn. Bonus! Liberty!

DO NOT WANT Poster Girl: All of you saying her kids should just walk 1.5 miles unaccompanied home are idiots or never been parents.

Imagine being a parent with a commute to work, and you know at about 3pm, your 11 year old daughter is going to be many miles away, to make her daily walk down a long road to home, with no witnesses or help if something happens to her.


Every day at 3pm you watch the clock worriedly, waiting for a phone call from the little girl to tell you she got home ok.

Some of us saying it's fine for kids to walk that far had longer walks when we were kids. And now we're grown adults who were never abducted, mown down by cars or mauled by dogs. And we didn't have access to mobile telephones to contact parents in the unlikely event of an emergency. And our parents got home a while after us after their day at work and subsequent commute.

Why would you worry every day? If the established pattern seems to be that things are fine, why would you assume they are not fine today? Alternatively, if in fact there's that much to worry about, why let your kid out of your sight at all?

I'm a bit cranked at my parents for a few of the decisions they made about their parenting (choice of school being the main one) but letting me walk a couple of miles as a 9 year old definitely isn't one of them.

And yes I'm a parent, and I don't think I qualify as an idiot.

They are making up the lost days with longer days, which lets them save money on buses, subsidized meals, and other "daily" expenses. This is without a doubt a great idea to help close the budget deficit that Georgia is still dealing with since Russia invaded in 2008.

DO NOT WANT Poster Girl: All of you saying her kids should just walk 1.5 miles unaccompanied home are idiots or never been parents.

Imagine being a parent with a commute to work, and you know at about 3pm, your 11 year old daughter is going to be many miles away, to make her daily walk down a long road to home, with no witnesses or help if something happens to her.


Every day at 3pm you watch the clock worriedly, waiting for a phone call from the little girl to tell you she got home ok.

All big girls are fat because they can't put down the fork.

/see how generalizations work??

TWX: ...I think that school should be year-round. 230 days a year approximately, two weeks off between semesters in winter and summer, and one week off between the quarters in the spring and fall. Minimal time to forget their studies, especially for those households that don't reinforce studies for the two and a half months they're off for in the summer. We don't make kids help with the harvest, why do we have a school system based on an agrarian timetable?

I also think that uniforms should be ubiquitous since parents don't seem to know how to dress their children anymore. Skip kindergarten, but have them first through 12th.

Basically, you just described Japanese schools. I work for an urban district there. They get a few weeks off per year, but extracurriculars continue during that time. Basically, the kids are in school non-stop. (The teachers are too, and rarely go home before 8:00PM-10:00PM. I know some that sleep on campus during the week.)

Also, 20-60 minute walks each way are standard, and students are REQUIRED to walk - parents aren't allowed to drop them off, except for exteme circumstances. And it's no big deal at all! Of course, it's a "walkable" city.

There's a lot they do here that I don't agree with, and it sometimes feels like I'm working in the Stone Ages...but I'm seeing that kids will put a lot of work into school, if their families expect them to. As it's been said a brazillion times, that's what's missing the US.

Now, reading "30-45 minutes of walking both ways is excessive" is just emabarrassing. That just *looks* bad. I mean, really? :-P

aevorea: Huh, what a difference a generation makes.

Yeah. When I was a kid I used to sit in the hatchback of our family Ford Pinto, and a girl on our block died when her bike flipped over and she got a brain hemorrhage. No one wore helmets on bikes those days.

I think I'm OK with some basic improvements to safety. Either build farking sidewalks or bus the kids, it's not hard.

saintstryfe: 30-45 minutes of walking both ways is excessive. And your asking the kid to walk on what I'd assume is private property.

No, it is not in any way, shape or form "excessive". But let's say that it was. I think somebody could make a lot of money if they invented some kind of wheeled transport for kids. Maybe not with an engine, but perhaps something they could stand on, or sit on, or strap to their feet. It's so simple I think there must be some kind of engineering constraint on such devices otherwise there'd be 9 million of them, possibly as far afield as Beijing.

Good thing they have that lottery thingy.
The reason some folks are against any tax hike is precisely situations like this.
The State of Georgia adopted the lottery as a means to help fund the education system, or that was the selling point.
So the money went where?
If the people voted for a tax hike, do you really believe these same officials would handle this extra revenue any more responsibly?
The reason for the shortening of the school year is simple: corruption.

Aussie_As: jjorsett: saintstryfe: icemanwol: So, i did a little research on the claims made in this opinion. Here are a few things that are not mentioned, Yargo Elementary School is at max 1.5 miles driving distance away from Nicole McIntyre house. The speed limit on the main "road" she mentions is a 30 MPH side road, yes there is no "sidewalk" but if you look both sides of the road, there is at least 15-20ft on each side of flat ground with grass the entire way. In addition, did she bother to ask if she could just drop off her kids early? Are her kids so fat that they cant bare the 30-45 min walk to the school every day?

30-45 minutes of walking both ways is excessive. And your asking the kid to walk on what I'd assume is private property.

It's not private property. I looked at the path on Google Earth. There's a minimum 15-foot (mostly 20+ foot) shoulder the entire length, in places where there's no sidewalk.

I came here to ask the questions that are answered above, so thanks for that.

It was inconceiveable to me that a roadway which was not a small cul-de-sac would lack a sidewalk (or footpath as they're called where I live). Walking on grass, even if it is private property, is perfectly acceptable. The mile-and-half distance might actually help the kids' health and fitness. It will also occupy them for about 60 minutes each day reducing the need for her neighbours to help mind the kids. The woman can't spot a helpful decision when it's forced on her. Idiot.

Just going to point this out randomly, but my husband is from a similar area of Georgia, and those nice, wide, grassy, walkable shoulders you see from above are just as likely to be deep, grass-lined drainage ditches.

I used to hate not being able to go to the grocery store that we could clearly see from the second floor without getting in the car; as a New Yorker, it drove me bananas.

All I'm saying is that while Mama Snowflake and her special little flurries are probably making way too big a deal, it's hard to know just how reasonable it it to get from point A to B in these neighborhoods without actually being on the ground.

There's nothing wrong with having your children walk to school *if* there's a footpath or sidewalk available on any reasonably trafficked motorway. As pointed out by previous poster the easement along the side of the road is likely to be a drainage ditch or culvert full of runoff from whatever open field is nearby (pastures, perhaps?). Also, as you approach the school it become very busy with school buses and parents jockying their monster trucks around and generally disregarding any pedestrian activity. Are there any intersecting roads? Without sidewalks it is unlikely that there are any crosswalks either (not to mention crossing guards...).

It is false economy to sacrifice the education of our children in order to make up for budget deficits.